2019 / Children, Virtual nature

Sparking Interest: A Design Framework for Mobile Technologies to Promote Children’s Interest in Nature

Citation

Kawas, S., Chase, S. K., Yip, J., Lawler, J. J., & Davis, K. (2019). Sparking interest: A design framework for mobile technologies to promote children’s interest in nature. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, 20, 24-34. doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcci.2019.01.003

Link to file

A parent and child looking at a cell phone and smilingCan a smartphone app get children outside, exploring the natural world, and genuinely curious about it? Researchers set out to test the idea, drawing on what is known about how interests develop and how mobile technology can support learning. They started by identifying four principles that help build a lasting interest in nature: making the experience personally meaningful, capturing a child’s full attention, encouraging social interaction, and offering reasons to keep coming back. Then they worked directly with seven children, ages 7 to 12, to turn those principles into practical design ideas.

The result was NatureCollections, an app that lets children build, organize, and share photo collections of the nature around them. To see whether it worked, the researchers took the app into the field with 18 children, ages 7 to 11, who used it to photograph their natural surroundings. The early signs are promising. The app drew children’s attention to the plants, animals, and natural details around them and encouraged close, careful looking. It also sparked playful and nature-related conversations among the children themselves and between children and their parents.

Rather than drawing a child inward, this thoughtfully designed app can help children look outward and build a personal connection to nature.

Abstract

Can a mobile app engage children in explorations of the natural world and promote their interest in nature? Drawing on theory related to interest development and research on mobile learning technologies, we derived a set of four design principles to support the development of children’s personal interest in nature. We co-designed with 7 children ages 7–12 a set of interest-centered design strategies to implement each of the following principles: (1) personal relevance, (2) focused attention, (3) social interactions, and (4) opportunities for continued engagement. We applied these strategies to design NatureCollections, a mobile application that allows children to build, curate, and share nature photo collections. We conducted an in-situ case study with 18 children ages 7–11 years who used the NatureCollections app to take pictures of their natural surroundings. Qualitative indicators suggest NatureCollections succeeded in directing children’s attention to and promoting close observation of the natural elements in their surroundings, and prompted playful, nature-related conversations with peers and parents.